My little bundle was born towards the end of January'13
Word to the Wise.
I am going to provide details about a labor and delivery that had a few complications. Read with an optamistic mind and future 1st time moms take note, I am not trying to scare you and make you think all births are like this. Plus there were some very amazing pay offs after the whole experience! I met my daughter and she is healthy!!!! thats all that matters!
Timeline
I had my last OB appointment on the 17th and got scheduled for an induction on Feb1st. I remember being bummed that it was so far away. During the appointment I did not receive a pelvic exam because I showed no signs of labor. On the 19th (my first due date) The only change I had was stronger braxton hicks contractions. I actually posted on a friends fb that I was sorry our daughters wouldn't have the same birthday after all.
Fast forward a few hours later and I am in bed and awoken by even stronger braxton hicks. I was thinking maybe they shouldn't be called braxton hicks any longer.. I head to the bathroom thinking I needed to go 1 or maybe 2. Turns out I had to go # 3 ?!?! That is the only way to describe what it feels like when you try to go to the bathroom and your body wants to expel a baby instead of a BM.Yup! you could say I was officially in inactive labor. I stumbled to where my mom was sleeping and said the pain had increased and that I really wanted to go to the hospital and get checked out.
Keep in mind, all while pregnant I told myself I wouldn't be the pregnant lady who goes to the hospital thinking it labor but it ends up being a damn gas cramp. I REALLY wanted to hold off going unless my water broke. That goes to show how bad the contractions had gotten.
Fast forward a few more hours and I am being told I was 1 centimeter dilated and being sent home. CRAP!! I had become that woman. or so I thought. they gave me Ambien to help me sleep and then suggested I come back tomorrow morning. (well more like in a couple of hours since it was already early morning) I felt so defeated! :( I took the ambien and all it did was make me hallucinate. I just remember pacing because laying down was too painful. I cant remember when but at some point it got worse and I was covering my mouth to keep from making loud noises. I went to my mom and said we had to go back because it was too much. After hearing me groaning and wincing and what not she and my husband agreed and back we went.
Fast forward another hour and I am 3 centimeters dilated. The dr's sent me to walk around the hospital and come back in an hour to see if I had progressed. Now I wont go into detail but I'm positive that everyone I passed in the corridor knew that I was in active labor! I couldn't get more than 5 steps without having another contraction. I kept grabbing the hand rail to brace myself and then just sort of groaning like an animal.
This is to be expected I thought. Totally normal labor. After an hour of walking we headed back to the triage and guess what?!?! I had dilated to 4-5 centimeters! Thank you lord!! They admitted me to the Labor and Delivery unit and I was given my epidural. My sweet sweet epidural! little did I know it was going to betray me lol.
At some point my blood pressure started to rise. Things are a blur but I remember they were a tad concerned. But again, NOT a huge deal. Stressful situation. Maybe thts all it was.
Some time after this I noticed some pressure increasing. The nurse told me to hit the button again on my epidural drip. This is when things got dicey. My Legs went back to being two slabs of meat on a platter but my mid section and pelvic region didn't change. The pressure increased again. Now it was real bad. The nurse did an exam and I was 9-10 centimeters! WHAT???? I was so surprised but excited. My husband began to txt people and let them know I would be pushing soon. Guess we celebrated too quick. Turns out I was fully dilated except a tiny piece of cervix that was stuck on the babies head. Everyone joked that she was wearing it like a hat. Nothing we could now do but wait for me to become completely dilated. I had no idea the wait would be hours. Meanwhile my fever and pain intensity were on the rise.
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I kept asking them to check but it didn't move. In fact it got bigger... I was somehow re-dilating and what was worse, during one pelvic exam they discovered my water had broken and they found meconium. Yup! My Little girl had made a movement and now we were both running the chance of infection. And what was even worse than THAT?.. the bacteria from the meconium gave me an infection called Chorioamniontitis. Funny thing about this particular infection that we learned the hard way... apparently it makes pain meds stop working!!I got started on antibiotics right away.
The Fever and the pain seemed to climb simultaneously. I was shivering and sweating at the same time. Clearly the epidural was NOT working anymore. This is when I noticed a sound escaping my lungs. Kind of in between a howl and a cry. I have never felt pain strong enough that I yelled outloud. They tried putting Lidocaine into my epidural. Nothing. Then they tried putting something else in. I don't remember what it was but it didn't change anything. Then came the Fentanyl. What a powerful one That was! unfortunately though, it only made me drunk. I'd fall asleep and then minutes later I would wake up borderline screaming. So embarrassing to be howling like an animal but no one said anything.
Eventually my body just started pushing, whether I wanted it to or not. I tried to hold it in but I cant even describe how hard it was. I remember grabbing my belly and praying to please stop it from trying to push the baby out. The reasoning for holding off is that you cant push a baby out if the cervix isn't fully dialated. It will apparently tear. I know this because I kept asking why lol
Here things get Really foggy. Sometime between 1/20 and 1/21 I had a seizure. Yup! my worst nightmare! It wasn't a big one and I came back into consciousness pretty quick. To my relief it wasn't an epileptic seizure but I didnt find that out till later. The cause of this was the pre-eclampsia that I had contracted. YUP! lol At some point between the 2 visits to the triage and labor I had contracted this. It was yet another complication but things could have been much MUCH worse. Besides, now we knew what was stopping my pain meds from working and everything.
Finally pushing time came around. Well to be honest I had tried to push before when they thought I was completely dialated the first time. At about 3:30 I was finally given the ok. It ended up being around 2 hours of pushing. My mom would say "shes almost there!" But I felt like she was never going to come out! By then my epidural was completely useless. I felt EVERYthing! I nearly quit during the "ring of fire" which is basically crowning. I cant explain why I kept going. I just knew that once the pain was over she would be out and safe. My husband coached me the entire time and with his help and my moms I finally got my baby girl!!! Greater news was that she was fine, other than needing antibiotics. And I didn't have to get a c-section. The biggest surprise is that she was 8lbs lol.
She was amazing! but I was also very out of it. The memory is blurry but I remember that after she was cleaned up I held her for a moment. It was completely unreal!
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| Lilianna! 8lbs 8oz born January 21st 2013 |
The pictures are blurry and I look terrible but I still love them!
So to sum up my labor and delivery I would say it was horrible! but so completely worth it! the payoff at the end is unbelievable. Yes there were complications but shes healthy and we both made it through without lasting medical problems. My bp went down and after about 4 days in the hospital my fever went away and now I just have to heal up from the delivery. Baby girl is doing even better! I swear she looks different every day! shes strong and her eyes give a million expressions, in my opinion. I cant wait to watch her grow and I am trying to be the best mother that I can be to her.
Alright I have to stop or i'll just ramble and ramble about how awesome I think my daughter is. I guess my blog is going to change a bit since I am no longer with child. Now I am with my child :) i'll make another post that will determine what I do with the blog now but until then I hope everyone enjoys reading my story! :D
-one happy new mommy
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